Thursday
At last it’s time for UTC again!
It had been a long and difficult year personally so I was really looking forward to this weekend and ‘the gathering’ in Leeuwarden. I decided to go to the casual meet-up on thursday evening to get the full experience. After departing from home later than I planned (had to pick up my son from school because he felt ill) and after a few delays in the Dutch railways I arrived in Leeuwarden around 18.30h. I’ve been booking the same B&B for a few years now and the hostess already welcomed me with beer because she felt sympathetic about all the delays. A good start!
I went to the Catshuis only to arrive at the same time as a couple of Dutch guys accompanied by Gordon, Oyvind, Danny, David and Michelle. They’d been drinking in the local beer café De Markies for a few hours already (though it was impossible to tell, no sign of drunkenness at all) and were in search of food. I joined them and we went to the restaurant next door. In the few meters that it took to get there we lost David and Michelle. We had dinner and I had a few Maallust beers, which I do recommend. Try them!
Afterwards we went to the Troll Cave where Richard, Rob and Gwenn started playing for ante. As surely everyone knows by now this resulted in a Mox Sapphire that exchanged ownership from Gwenn to Rob only to be bought back immediately. Gwenn is a really great guy and took the loss, and the taunts he had to endure during the rest of the weekend, very well. I believe Richard won Will’s Mox Ruby the day after and Will got a Chaos Orb himself (Richard’s done a blog immediately after he came home and the full details are all here).
Henk asked whether I wanted to join a cube draft. Sure, why not? Well, it was premodern and I don’t know too much about that. I think it was Felix who brought his own cube to Leeuwarden, which is of course an awesome idea. Cube drafts are always great fun. I drafted a truly awful deck and got crushed accordingly. Back in the Troll Cave I watched a few games of ante and other formats being played. All through the evening Demmer kept reminding me of our annual arm wrestling match which was to be scheduled on saturday evening at 8pm. This is a tradition that started a few years back and somehow our arm wrestling matches always result in a tie. That’s why Demmer started calling me Hulk. We chatted, laughed, shouted and drank beer until the bar was closed and a couple of us decided it was time to go to Scooters, the bar where we usually hang out after the bar closes.
I really don’t know much about Scooters anymore, though I remember it was a great load of fun and I chatted to David for a while.
Friday
As you might expect after partying in Scooters until early morning I wasn’t exactly at my best this morning. I expected it beforehand and hadn’t registered for Swaffel so I wouldn’t have to drag myself to the Catshuis early. I simply crashed in bed until I had enough energy to take a shower, eat something and get back to the venue. Around 1.30pm I arrived and once I was there I was back to beer quite quickly.
I spent the afternoon just hanging around. I played a few matches against Anies. He played his A40L and I played AB40 built according to league rules (I simply don’t have enough Alpha cards to play A40L).
Afterwards we bumped into Dy. He spent the weekend making a documentary about Old School and UTC and was interviewing players. I’m really interested in his documentary and think it’s a very cool thing to do, so Anies and I did an interview with him. The interview was interrupted by Reindeer, who was doing his usual Reindeer-mating-ritual and trying to have sex with a window. Strange guy!
In the evening it was time for the OS repack draft. This is always great fun for a number of reasons. Firstly it’s just the cracking of the packs. You might find a beer coupon and who doesn’t want those? Then there’s the thrash talk and the puzzle to actually construct a playable deck. I opened a Control Magic and took it. During the first pack I took a few black cards, but at the end of pack 1 I was ultimately UG. I was paid off in the second pack, receiving a few counters, a Duskwood Boars and an Erhnam Djinn. I was still missing some good cards and was hoping for a Mahamoti Djinn or Air Elemental in pack 3. Ok, let’s go, I opened my pack and got… absolutely nothing. The rest of the packs were horrible for me as well so I ended up with a mediocre deck. I played Anies in the first match. He was drafting for the first time and made a good deck with 2 Serra Angels. He was unlucky though and I took it down. I lost the two other matches in convincing fashion. Can’t remember who was our table winner.
I have to give credits to fellow ‘Old Man of the Sea’ Arjen, because he made it all the way to the final. Sadly, he lost to Elon who had a terrible deck that looked like it could do well in constructed formats.
I decided to skip Scooters this evening and went to get something to eat (Febo) with Anies before going to bed.
Saturday
I woke up feeling refreshed and was ready to go to the Catshuis. Well, no, not really, I still needed to build my deck and sleeve it. I got all the cards together and sleeved my deck while making a single last minute adjustment, playing a CoP: Red over the third REB in the sideboard. Then it was time to go!
About the deck
I decided to go with The Deck. Not a fan favorite, but I always liked playing control decks back in the day when I played other formats. Last year I played a 75-cards singleton deck including Lich, Celestial Prism and Glasses of Urza so I reckoned I was due some spike cards. I got a lot of cards for The Deck during last year and borrowed the last card (Volcanic Island) from my brother.
I don’t get to play too much OS and play testing was limited to a single evening. Once a month the Old Men of the Sea organise an evening of OS magic in The Hague. I went there with The Deck, trying to play main deck REB’s instead of Copy Artifacts. I got good results, but lost the mirror playing Lorenzo. I decided to put the REB’s in the sideboard and play 2 Copy Artifacts in the main deck. I just had to hope to avoid mirror matches since that didn’t seem to be going well for me.
Because I expected a lot of Atog and Robots decks I played Moat main and put the Abyss in the sideboard. The only card left to discuss is of course The Hive. I feel like 4 Factory’s and a Fireball is too little in the way of wincons. I didn’t want to have a lot of draws so I needed another way of winning. I played The Hive before in other decks and really love the card. It is really underplayed and I knew people wouldn’t expect it.
It’s a wincon and I love the card. Let’s play it!
After playing the tournament I was very happy that I used my entire sideboard. I would make one change in the main deck and replace the Regrowth for the second Recall.
UTC
Time for the main event.
Round 1 against Miguel on the Deck. Crap! I immediately get a mirror match. I don’t remember much about the actual matches, but I ended up winning it 2-0 with about 15 minutes left in the round. I think I’m on the back foot in the second match at the start, but I’ve got enough time to turn it around. Perfect, mirror played and won with time to spare!
The second round is posted and I’m paired against Nick Cramer. Damn, another mirror. I’ve played Nick before at UTC two years ago and we played intense matches. Nick always plays The Deck and I’m worried he knows much more about the mirror than I do. We played two close games. Nick wins game 1 and I win game 2. We’ve got a few minutes left in the round and debate whether it’s worth starting the game at all. We agreed not to waste everyone’s time by going to turn 5 in extra time knowing that it’s not realistic to have a winner at all. I decided to get some lunch and more importantly: I concluded it was time to start drinking beer.
Round 3 I played Viacheslav. He’s Russian living in Bulgaria and came to UTC with his girlfriend Elena who also played in the tournament. It’s really cool to have people coming from all over the world! Viacheslav played a very nice BR deck with Hyppies, Blood Moon and Underworld Dreams. I won the first game quite comfortably. The second game is one I remember clearly, because I felt like I was imprisoned. Viacheslav had a Blood Moon and an Underworld Dreams in play. I didn’t play basics in my deck and I only had a Fellwar Stone and Mox Jet in play as non-red sources. So I lacked white and blue sources. I did have Swords and Disenchant in hand though. Viacheslav played a Su-Chi. Ok, that’s pressure. I drew my Lotus and used it to cast both Swords and Disenchant. The question I faced was: destroy Moon or Dreams? I was low on life so I needed to Disenchant the Dreams. We went back and forth until I found my Demonic Tutor. I’ve got BEB in hand so I search for Mox Sapphire to Blast away the Moon. Viacheslav has REB ready and counters my blast. Now I need another good draw. I got Chaos Orb and Viacheslav didn’t have the Shatter for it. I Orb the Moon and win the game from that point onwards.
At the end of the day Viacheslav made it into the top 16 as well.
The next two rounds I played SimpLy and Dominic, both on The Deck (or The Deck-ish something). I don’t remember any particular plays in these matches. Sorry guys. There were just so many mirrors that they’re a bit blurred in my brain. I won both rounds, respectively 2-0 and 2-1.
So now I’m 4-0-1 and I realised I had 2 win-and-in rounds for top 16 ahead of me.
Ok, the first round for a place in the top 16. I played Arouffiac. I didn’t know him or what he played, but it turned out to be The Deck. I was now confident in playing mirror matches, but Arouffiac immediately struck me as a good player. We went 1-1 and got to a very close third game. I’m very much winning on board with double Mishra’s Factory and him on 5 life. But I only have 6 cards left in my library.
Arouffiac played a Braingeyser for 6 on me. I tried Counterspell, but he did it right back. I countered again and he played Power Sink for 6. I counted my mana: 6 left. I payed for Power Sink and the Braingeyser was countered. Arouffiac explained that he had miscounted and forgotten my Library. He would’ve played Braingeyser for 5 and Power Sink for 7 otherwise so he had a chance of winning a turn later. We discussed the situation, but in the end I decided that too much information had passed to go back, that he couldn’t possibly know the remaining cards in my deck and I reminded myself we were playing for top 16.
Mistakes are always made in Magic, but this was still a lousy way to win a match. Despite locking my place in the top 16 it was the low point of my day.
A lot of Dutchies were having a strong day and playing for a win-and-in for the top 16. Sadly Richard got paired against Gijsbert so one of them would end up 5-2 and would likely miss the cut off. Richard won and Gijsbert ended up 17th. Emiel also lost his final round against Svante.
I got paired against Wilfred in round 7. Both of us were already locked for top 16 so we could play relaxed. We grabbed some beers and shuffled up. I think Wilfred mulligand both games and in the end he never got something going. I won both games easily while Wilfred shouted accusations and random stuff at me. Still love you, man!
After the Swiss rounds my record is 6-0-1 and I’m in second place. Nicolai Rasmussen takes the whole thing down with a 7-0 record, playing another version of The Deck. What a day he must’ve had!
Ron makes the announcements for top 16 and I’m thrilled to learn that eight Dutch players are in there. Apart from myself Richard, Wilfred, Henk, Alex, Marten, Yorick and Frank are all through to the top 16 as well. Marten is playing an awesome mono blue control deck that’s centered around Ashnod’s Transmogrant, Copy and Steal Artifact. Thanks to him Wall of Air is in the top 16! Yorick is on RG aggro and I think Viacheslav and he are the only players without the blue power. I can only admire the diversity these guys brought to Leeuwarden.
Top 16
During the day I’d become quite relaxed and didn’t feel the pressure. I felt the pressure return for this round. This is because I made the top 16 at UTC two years ago as well. Gwenn defeated me in the round to come. I now had a chance to do better.
I got paired against Jordi Purple. Since I was the higher seat in the Swiss I got to play first.
Henk was paired against Wilfred and Marten got paired against Yorick (they played on stream). A shame that Dutchies played each other, but that’s not to be helped with 8 people in the top 16.
I never played Purple before, but we immediately joked and laughed. I felt the relaxed state of mind come back and was ‘in the zone’. I don’t exactly remember any memorable plays, but I won game 1.
My opening hand for game 2 was one of the coolest I’ve had in a long time: Mox Pearl, Mox Jet, Sol Ring, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Swords to Plowshares and Disenchant. Ok, so no lands or blue sources. Then again, I’m on the draw and if I find a blue source in the first two turns I’m doing incredibly well. I’ve got 14 blue sources in my deck, not counting Black Lotus and Fellwar Stones. No guts, no glory! This feels like a keep. I drew my first card, not a land. Yes, on the second turn I draw a land, but it’s a Factory. Still no blue mana. I simply don’t find blue until way too late and Purple punishes me for a greedy keep. I haven’t regretted it for a moment though and still think about what could have been.
I’m on the play again for the third game and get to keep a hand with good lands and spells and win the match.
During the top 16 matches announcements are made about the opening of a Beta booster pack in the tent. I can hear Richard muttering about this, because he has a slot in the booster pack, but he’s also playing Viacheslav. Ultimately he defeats his opponent in time for the opening of the Beta booster pack. I think Demmer is also at the opening and both of us are completely forgetting about our arm wrestling match. We’ll do it next year, Demmer! You got a lucky escape this year.
Henk defeats Wilfred and Yorick gets the win over Marten. Alex is still in it as well as he defeats Svante.
At this point it’s lights out for my brother Sander. He did go to Scooters last night with a bunch of people and I believe they went to bed at 5 or 6 am that morning. He wishes me well and heads for bed.
At this point I need to introduce Old Man Tim. The Old Man crew were off somewhere drinking beer and playing Bitch Magic. Tim’s been drinking happily and has now realised that one of the Old Man crew has actually made it into the top 8. He decides to be my mental coach, slapping me on the neck and shoulders like a boxing coach and giving constructive feedback like ‘don’t just play cards, use a sledgehammer’, ‘you should shuffle dominantly’ and ‘his playmat is your domain’. It was a high point I will remember for a long time.
With the Beta booster pack having been opened everyone got back to play the quarter finals. I got paired against Kugelblitz Manuel so it was going to be another mirror match. I’m now feeling quite confident in the mirror and I’m just happy that I don’t have to arm wrestle him.
If I remember correctly I mulled my opening hand, we traded some resources at the start, but I got to stick a Tome. It was joined by The Hive and I took the game. We went to the sideboard and I did the following: +3 Divine Offering, 2 REB’s and the Disrupting Scepter; -2 Power Sink, 1 Fellwar Stone, 2 Swords to Plowshares and the Moat.
I had to take a mulligan again in the second game and kept a hand with Tundra, Mox and Balance, thinking that I had a hand that could fight with a LoA or Ancestral opening. Manuel opens with land and plays Ancestral Recall in my upkeep, going to 8 cards in hand. I draw a card, play Tundra, Mox and Balance, forcing him to discard 4 cards and essentially annulling the Ancestral. I won this game as well and got to play in the semis.
During the match against Manuel a couple of people were watching and noticing I played The Hive. They asked whether I had the tokens for it, which I didn’t have. They gave me three wasp tokens made by the Brass Boys. I thought it really cool that they did this so I bought us all beer and took the tokens with me into the next match.
Alex won his match as well defeating Richard on stream, but we are now the last Dutchies and both of us are playing Danes. Nicolai defeated Yorick, who really had an excellent run, and he now needed to play Alex. I got to play against Steffen, who knocked out Henk. I knew Steffen was on The Deck as well so I was in for yet another mirror match. We played on stream so it can still be viewed if people want to.
The first game I had (as Seb said as a commentator) ‘an embarrassment of riches’. I simply had it all. I opened with Library and even though I missed my second land drop I was still fine. I had two Moxes in my hand and with the Library I found a Volcanic Island on my third turn. Steffen made the most of the situation by playing a Time Walk into a fourth land and Chaos Orb. It stuck and he got to activate it on LoA. I didn’t have a Disenchant. Chaos Orb hits and my Library is destroyed.
Now we have the following situation. Steffen has 4 lands in play, but only one untapped. He has 5 cards in hand. I have only one land, but 2 Moxen. On my turn I draw and have 8 cards in hand: Ancestral Recall, Braingeyser, Mind Twist, Mana Drain, Counterspell, Balance, Moat and 1 more. Well, Moat is a dead card so I only need to discard one good card to triple Stone Rain him with Balance. Steffen loses three lands and I play my Ancestral next, drawing Black Lotus, Underground Sea and Jayemdae Tome. I played the land and the Lotus, which allowed me to counter his Ancestral Recall and then I got to Mind Twist his hand, including a Braingeyser, away the next turn. There’s a small opening for Steffen to draw Balance himself, but he doesn’t have it.
I sideboard the exact same way as I did against Manuel.
Steffen starts game 2 and plays a land. He’s pondered his hand for a while before keeping and doesn’t seem too happy. I played Volcanic Island and Mox Jet and in his upkeep I Ancestral Recall myself. I think Steffen already felt behind here as he played Time Walk into a third land for Demonic Tutor into Ancestral Recall. A play I truly dislike to do myself in the mirror, because you spend so much power for little gain.
Now Steffen has 7 cards in hand against my 8 and I have only one land against his three. I draw my ninth card and start weighing my options. I’ve got Balance again. Since Steffen didn’t play a Mox I’m confident he’s got no acceleration. I do have another Mox and it’s the white one. I have to decide whether I want to Stone Rain him once or twice. I decided to play my Mox Pearl, Mishra’s Factory, Chaos Orb and Balance. Steffen now needs to discard two cards and loses a land, thus nullifying the Time Walk. I’m now two Moxes and a Chaos Orb ahead on board. Steffen doesn’t find a Mox (or Disenchant/Divine Offering) and I draw my third Mox and have my second Factory in hand as well. I decide to go on the attack and to make him have all the answers. I’m still sitting on Disenchant and Counterspell as well. We have a few counter- and Orbbattles, but I don’t think Steffen was ever really in the match. I drew my Disenchants and Divine Offerings and he didn’t. Sometimes it’s that simple.
In the other semi final Alex is up a game. Fingers crossed for an all Dutch final. I tried to watch a bit of their game after talking to Steffen for a while, but it was way too crowded. Alex did win it though and two Dutch guys got to battle it out in the final. I always considered (and still do) Alex to be the better player of the two of us. Still, it was time to beat him.
Back to my mental coach. Tim was still mental-coaching me through the evening by giving the same constructive feedback and giving me beer. He also introduced the prefinal stare down. As far as I’m concerned, this will be a tradition at UTC from now on.
Apart from the players and the decks, there was one big difference in the final match. While I had been drinking beer since the end of round 2 and Richard thought I needed a Duvel during the semi’s to keep all that beer company, Alex was going strong on sparkling water. Still, I was feeling calm, relaxed and remarkably fresh. Ready for the final round.
In the meantime Sander has been watching the top 16 in bed and has seen me progress to the finals. He decides that he can’t stay in bed while I’m playing the finals. He rushed back to the Catshuis and commented on the final matches.
Now to the final!
Alex needed to mull his opening hand, while I kept my seven. His six cards are a keep, but he only has two City of Brass for mana and he takes a lot of damage. In the first three turns I get bolted, Swords an Atog and Mana Drain his Chaos Orb. Now I’ve got my first major decision on turn 4. I played a Library of turn 3 and must decide if I just pass to get my Library going or to keep adding to the board. I also have the mana I got for Draining the Orb in my pool. I decided to be active and played Fellwar Stone for free and a Factory hit the board as well. Alex played a Relic Barrier and I was very happy to see it. To me it meant he was out of threats or mana. I guessed he might be holding Psionic Blast or Serendib Efreet. On my turn I immediately played The Hive, which was a no-brainer. If he has a Shatter, we still have a game, but he’ll spend his turn removing The Hive. If he hasn’t got Shatter, I’m winning the game easily. Alex didn’t have the Shatter and I’m feeling in great shape. I attack a couple of turns with Wasp tokens and get an Orb in play. I Swords an Atog, giving Alex 5 extra life. Alex tried to stem the bleeding by emptying his hand and playing a Dib. I Orb it away, show Alex the counterspell still in my hand and we’re off to the second game.
Sideboarding was more complicated in this match. It was clear to me that I wanted Divine Offerings, BEB’s and my CoP: Red. But then again, what about the REB’s, Bolts and The Abyss? I decided Bolts are no good. It’s too much to hope that I could kill an Atog with a Bolt. The REB’s didn’t come in either, because I wasn’t sure if Alex would keep his Dibs in. And I decided against The Abyss, because it’s a clunky card and I already had plenty of high-cc-cards in my deck.
So I did the following: +3 Divine Offering, 2 BEB and 1 CoP: Red; -2 Fellwar Stone, 2 Power Sink, Regrowth and 1 Copy Artifact.
Alex takes another mulligan in game 2 and as before I get to keep my seven. His opening is strong however: Land, Mox Sapphire and Atog. I played Tundra and Mox Pearl and while I had the Swords I decided to wait with it. I also had a Disenchant that might be useful. Alex played his second land (a Factory) and attacked for 1 with the Atog. No plays from him. At the end of turn I Disenchant his Mox Sapphire, which might look strange. I had two reasons for doing so. Firstly, it deprives him of artifacts in play for his Atog. Secondly, with the Mox it would be easy for him to deploy threats and attack with the Factory. Alex went into the tank in response to my Disenchant so I suspected he had a Psionic Blast. He didn’t play it though.
I drop a Library with 5 cards in hand. Alex Bolts me at end of turn and on his he drops his Lotus and attacks for 1 again. I just drew my card and passed, because I wanted to get to seven cards in hand to start using LoA. Alex gets Ankh of Mishra down and I have to answer that one, because I need to make my land drops. I draw again, activate my Loa, Disenchant the Ankh and play a City of Brass. I now have 6 cards in hand. On his turn Alex plays a Volcanic Island, activates his Factory and attacks with Atog and Factory together. At this point he still has two cards in hand, one of which is the suspected Psionic Blast.
My hand at this point is Braingeyser, Mind Twist, Balance, Swords to Plowshares, Counterspell and Volcanic Island. My hand seems powerful, but it’s only powerful in a long game and I feel like I don’t have enough time to fully exploit it. If I take it I fall down to 11. If I Swords one of the creatures I’m not using LoA anymore. I decided to let go of the Library activations and used my Swords on the Factory, which again might seem a bit weird. I decided on the Factory, because I had no other answer for it and was planning on using Balance next turn to get rid of the Atog.
I drew Mox Jet and started thinking about Alex’s cards in hand. One has to be Psionic Blast. What’s the other one? I’m thinking it’s probably not a creature or artifact, because I think he would have played it. He’s not holding a land, because I suspect he just drew the Volcanic he played. So it should be a spell. My guess is Lightning Bolt or Red Elemental Blast. My hope is to play Balance, counter his Psionic Blast and that his last card is unplayable at the time (maybe a second Psionic Blast). That would allow me to keep Braingeyser as my only card. If his last card is Bolt, we’ll be going hellbent. It is REB is doesn’t matter either way, because while my last card would be Braingeyser, he would still have the counter for it. I decided to play Balance and use the Counterspell. Predictably, Alex responded with Psionic Blast which I countered. The last card turned out to be a REB, so I take 4 and we both are at the mercy of our decks.
Luckily I topdeck 2 Mishra’s Factory in my first 3 turns and attack Alex for 2, 3 and 4 a turn. Alex is drawing mana. He drops to 5 (just like me) and then hits Wheel of Fortune. We both draw a fresh hand and he has 3 mana to work with and a land drop yet to make. If I draw blanks any combination of two Bolts, Chains or Black Vises will do it. My new seven is: Black Lotus, Mox Ruby, CoP: Red, BEB, 2 Divine Offering and one more. I’m very excited now! He now needs exactly triple Bolt (or double Bolt with a REB) to win. Alex doesn’t have any Bolts at all. He drew lands, Serendib, Atog and a Black Vise. He casts the Vise which I immediately let resolve. He passes, and I cast Divine Offering on the Vise at the end of turn. I untap and immediately misplay, by making a land drop and forgetting my Library. Alex allows me to rewind (thank you, great sportsmanship!) and after drawing with Library I play a land, Mox Ruby, Black Lotus and use my Lotus to cast CoP: Red. I attack Alex down to 1 life, making his Dibs and Psi Blasts useless. I have enough mana to activite my Circle, play Divine Offering and BEB. I think his only answer to the Circle is his Chaos Orb so I’m going to keep that DO for that one card only.
Alex finds his Chaos Orb and plays it together with an Atog. I counter the Atog with BEB making him have another answer. He doesn’t have one, passes the turn and I attack for lethal.
Wait! That means I’ve just won UTC and will take the Troll! People are congratulating me from all sides and Old Men Tim and Arjen suddenly hoist me onto their shoulders (they’re probably in need of chiropraxy now).
We need to celebrate! The location is ofcourse Scooters, where Arjen and Ivo start a fresh game on the bar. Those guys will play magic 24/7. We run into a lot of others at Scooters
and there’s a lot of beer on the tables. I’m just smiling from one ear to the other! You’ll forgive me for not remembering all that happened here.
The next day I wake feeling absolutely fine. The bliss of victory might have cured a hangover here. I get something to eat and get back to the Catshuis to say goodbye to all who’re there.
Sander is there as well and decides to challenge me, which is fine by me. I grab one last beer and we play a match. My good run hasn’t finished and I beat him easily in two games.
Now it really is time to go home. I run into Alex and Wander at the train station and we’re all headed for Utrecht. Alex’s daughter is travelling with us. We talk about the weekend, the decks and of course our final games.
At Utrecht I discovered that my journey this weekend will end how it started, with delays and trains that have been cancelled. Still, it’s worth it all! What a weekend and what a community!
See you all next year!
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